Sector plays the monopolies game

Custodians have an ambivalent view of monopolies, especially when they don't control them

By

Richard Greensted

February 14, 2000 5:00 p.m. GMT

If the securities industry were a person, it would long ago have been committed to an institution, locked in a rubber room and subjected to frequent sessions of electric shock therapy.

The problems with this deeply disturbed body are too numerous to mention but, when it comes to clearing and settlement, there is one that stands out above all others: its inability to decide whether or not it likes central market utilities â monopolies to you and me.